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Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

Austria-Hungary was basically the consolation prize of the great nationalism game show.

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Miles Vorkosigan
Mar 21, 2007

The stuff that dreams are made of.
Is there any way to grab a nation from another Great Power's sphere without a war?

AtomikKrab
Jul 17, 2010

Keep on GOP rolling rolling rolling rolling.

Miles Vorkosigan posted:

Is there any way to grab a nation from another Great Power's sphere without a war?

influence till you get to friendly. 50 twice, get to 100 influence after that and REMOVE FROM SPHERE, then get 100 again and sphere.

Fintilgin
Sep 29, 2004

Fintilgin sweeps!

Darkrenown posted:

Once you're comfortable with that you can dig in and see what the factors are, but there's no need to count widget production unless you are sperging out over building a perfect economy (which can be fun, but it's hardly vital).

Not just not vital, you can pick a 'hero' nation for the period, become the #1 Great Power, and never look at it at all.

Case in point, at what I'm getting at.

In EUIII to build an Army Man I pay 10 gold.

In V2 to build an Army Man, I need 20 guns, 20 stylish jackets, 20 bottles of wine, and 20 cans of tuna fish. But I don't actually need to know those numbers, or even that I need those things at all, because when I order an Army Man, all the purchases are made for me by my invisible AI helpers, and the actual cost in gold I pay (which is hidden in a tooltip) is a totally unpredictable fluctuating amount based on current market conditions, which I may be able to make very slightly more efficient by using national focuses to make capitalists some tiny percentage more likely to build tuna fish canneries. But I don't really need to worry about efficacy, because the AI has, entirely without my input, made me the most powerful industrial nation on the planet and I've got 31 million gold in the bank, so gently caress efficacy - free cans of tuna for everyone!

In both games you push a button, pay some gold, and get a new Army Man, but one has a Rube Goldbergish sub-structure that churns away elaborately in the background, which (I suspect) gives no better (and perhaps worse) results then a far more abstract and 'game over simulation' system would.

Patter Song
Mar 26, 2010

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
Fun Shoe
So speaking of EU4, why is Safavid Persia a Theocracy? Granted, Shah Ismail had a zealous religious following that practically worshipped him and he himself was a cleric, but his ruling title was Shah and his successors were also Shahs.

Eiba
Jul 26, 2007


Fintilgin posted:

Not just not vital, you can pick a 'hero' nation for the period, become the #1 Great Power, and never look at it at all.

Case in point, at what I'm getting at.

In EUIII to build an Army Man I pay 10 gold.

In V2 to build an Army Man, I need 20 guns, 20 stylish jackets, 20 bottles of wine, and 20 cans of tuna fish. But I don't actually need to know those numbers, or even that I need those things at all, because when I order an Army Man, all the purchases are made for me by my invisible AI helpers, and the actual cost in gold I pay (which is hidden in a tooltip) is a totally unpredictable fluctuating amount based on current market conditions, which I may be able to make very slightly more efficient by using national focuses to make capitalists some tiny percentage more likely to build tuna fish canneries. But I don't really need to worry about efficacy, because the AI has, entirely without my input, made me the most powerful industrial nation on the planet and I've got 31 million gold in the bank, so gently caress efficacy - free cans of tuna for everyone!

In both games you push a button, pay some gold, and get a new Army Man, but one has a Rube Goldbergish sub-structure that churns away elaborately in the background, which (I suspect) gives no better (and perhaps worse) results then a far more abstract and 'game over simulation' system would.
So, not strongly disagreeing with you, but just musing on the subject: You'd think if you really did nothing to the economy, the AI countries would do just as well, at least. You'd think starting out at #2 or 3 with a similar rank for growth capacity would leave you at that rank, if the AI countries were doing just as well as you.

Also, if you're playing France or America of course you can expect to have an easy time of it industrially. On some level that's like complaining about playing the UK and having the whole game handed to you on a silver platter. It's not balanced, and it's not supposed to be. You'd care more about managing your industry if you were, for instance, trying to make population-poor Scandinavia an industrial powerhouse to keep your GP rank. A top GP that already has the foundation for an industry is not going to have to manually mess with their factories to do really well. I agree the system's got issues, but that is not a failing in my mind.

And things like automatically buying guns on the world market might seem like a pointless addition when everything goes right, but it's got its most interesting implications when it goes wrong. Like when you've gotten into a naval race with a rival, but the two of you have bought up all the steamers in the world, and the other guy has his own factory, so he can build ships and you can't. Or you could be relatively poor country with a gun factory or something, and suddenly a great war breaks out and all the great powers are suddenly interested in guns- even though they don't care about where the guns come from (if they were humans they'd just be clicking a button to make troops and giving it no more thought), they're making your factory super profitable all of a sudden.

I mean, ultimately I think you're right. An economic simplification or abstraction would probably make the game a lot better, and there's a lot to be dissatisfied with. But I think it's a system that's already a lot more engaging than you give it credit for.

uPen
Jan 25, 2010

Zu Rodina!

Eiba posted:

So, not strongly disagreeing with you, but just musing on the subject: You'd think if you really did nothing to the economy, the AI countries would do just as well, at least. You'd think starting out at #2 or 3 with a similar rank for growth capacity would leave you at that rank, if the AI countries were doing just as well as you.

The AI counties don't do as well because they're not as aggressive as the player is militarily. If France spent the entire game plotting how to poo poo all over Prussia then getting a strong German economy up and running would be much more difficult.

Fintilgin
Sep 29, 2004

Fintilgin sweeps!

Eiba posted:

Also, if you're playing France or America of course you can expect to have an easy time of it industrially. On some level that's like complaining about playing the UK and having the whole game handed to you on a silver platter.

Yeah, this is true to an extent, but I do feel like the base game should be balanced around the 'hero' countries to some degree. If they can effectively 'opt out' from ever even looking at entire sub-systems of the game then something is wrong. Especially when the game is about the 19th century and the sub-system is the economy/industry! You shouldn't have to play as a minor country for that.

Eiba posted:

And things like automatically buying guns on the world market might seem like a pointless addition when everything goes right, but it's got its most interesting implications when it goes wrong. Like when you've gotten into a naval race with a rival, but the two of you have bought up all the steamers in the world, and the other guy has his own factory, so he can build ships and you can't. Or you could be relatively poor country with a gun factory or something, and suddenly a great war breaks out and all the great powers are suddenly interested in guns- even though they don't care about where the guns come from (if they were humans they'd just be clicking a button to make troops and giving it no more thought), they're making your factory super profitable all of a sudden.

This is one of those things that makes a cool story, but I wonder how often it is actually noticeable/relevant. Maybe I'm off base, but I feel like that's a thing where first you'd have to notice that your daily profit was up a bunch, then you'd have to dig around to try to figure out why, and if you remembered what your gun factories average daily profit was you could see that it had spiked, and then you could work backwards and deduce the reasons why (maybe), but ultimately that one factory is probably a small % of your total economies daily profit and it ends up being more of a :3: curiosity.

Eiba posted:

I mean, ultimately I think you're right. An economic simplification or abstraction would probably make the game a lot better, and there's a lot to be dissatisfied with. But I think it's a system that's already a lot more engaging than you give it credit for.

Some of it is just my frustration/inarticulateness talking to be sure. :shobon:

Hefty Leftist
Jun 26, 2011

"You know how vodka or whiskey are distilled multiple times to taste good? It's the same with shit. After being digested for the third time shit starts to taste reeeeeeaaaally yummy."


If it's worth anything, CK2 is the best game ever and doesn't suffer from any of this, so here's hoping for Victoria 3

Vivian Darkbloom
Jul 14, 2004


Fintilgin posted:

It doesn't feel like it's really simulating anything that actually resembles the real world particularly, it's just a black box full of sound and fury that has been hammered (over a ton of patches and two expansions) into spitting out results that kinda work, most of the time. I mean, it's nice that your 2127 bureaucrats in Fucksilvania, Kazakstan add .136% bonus efficacy to your 6793 craftsmen, who produce 1.948 widgets a day that can be turned into .36 megawidgets in a megawidget factory, which gets a 4.612% production bonus on alternate Thursdays because you have a national focus there, but it's not a system that the vast majority of players can meaningfully interact with.

My feelings exactly – all this complexity doesn't add much gameplay. You kind of have to make your own fun in V2; it's not really much fun when you first pick it up, unlike DW and CK2. It also encourages micromanagement, which is anti-fun but can give you a big advantage. (At least there's no POP splitting!)

I guess it's easy for me to be an armchair game designer and all, but what I'd like to see in a 19th century game is more character, more immersion.

Van5
Sep 9, 2011

Fister Roboto posted:

Austria-Hungary was basically the consolation prize of the great nationalism game show.

Such a lovely prize...

Necroneocon
May 12, 2009

by Shine

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

My feelings exactly – all this complexity doesn't add much gameplay. You kind of have to make your own fun in V2; it's not really much fun when you first pick it up, unlike DW and CK2. It also encourages micromanagement, which is anti-fun but can give you a big advantage. (At least there's no POP splitting!)

I guess it's easy for me to be an armchair game designer and all, but what I'd like to see in a 19th century game is more character, more immersion.

Micromanaging is gently caress as heck :colbert:

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
What would be a set of goals to set for oneself as the UK in terms of keeping close to or beating historical performance? I get what most other countries need to do (Germany wins WW1/dismantles France/has a colonial empire, Russia industrializes/doesn't go Communist/goes super-Communist, France doesn't fall behind everyone else/dismantles Germany).

But for the UK, aside from establishing African and Asian colonies (and maybe the Crimean War and of course re-winning WW1) it seems like all of the interesting stuff happened before or after the time period covered: The US has already been independent for quite some time, and the Empire didn't break up until after the cost of WW2. What am I missing as a to-do checklist?

Kersch
Aug 22, 2004
I like this internet

ThePutty posted:

CK2 is the best game ever and doesn't suffer from any of this

Strudel Man
May 19, 2003
ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT
Hah, true enough. Another self-playing, slightly-manipulable system that has minor effects at best on actual gameplay. At least this one isn't quite as ruinously complicated, though.

Beamed
Nov 26, 2010

Then you have a responsibility that no man has ever faced. You have your fear which could become reality, and you have Godzilla, which is reality.


Just to clarify, you can control available goods, stockpiles, etc. in Victoria 2 - it's just automatically set to AI control, within reason. I've been told taking manual control can hyperefficientize your economy, but who the hell would ever want to?

Hefty Leftist
Jun 26, 2011

"You know how vodka or whiskey are distilled multiple times to taste good? It's the same with shit. After being digested for the third time shit starts to taste reeeeeeaaaally yummy."



Welp, better get your hats in

Welmu
Oct 9, 2007
Metri. Piiri. Sekunti.

Old Gods :colbert:

Tahirovic
Feb 25, 2009
Fun Shoe

Beamed posted:

Just to clarify, you can control available goods, stockpiles, etc. in Victoria 2 - it's just automatically set to AI control, within reason. I've been told taking manual control can hyperefficientize your economy, but who the hell would ever want to?

Can you explain this a bit further?
The trade interface is a bit weird, for example I'd like to always have 2000 (or whatever the maximum is) Timber, Steel, Cement and other building goods stockpiled. How would I do that, just remove the AI checkbox, set to buy and set maximum stockpile?

Getting a new Railway tech is always so funny when you control half the world and need those goods.

Chickpea Roar
Jan 11, 2006

Merdre!

Tahirovic posted:

Can you explain this a bit further?
The trade interface is a bit weird, for example I'd like to always have 2000 (or whatever the maximum is) Timber, Steel, Cement and other building goods stockpiled. How would I do that, just remove the AI checkbox, set to buy and set maximum stockpile?

Yes. I always do that for the all the army and building goods when I can afford it.

Alchenar
Apr 9, 2008

Welmu posted:

Old Gods :colbert:


That screen is a million times better than the current one but I still don't believe that tech will be that important. CK just isn't really a game about teching up.

Darkrenown
Jul 18, 2012
please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

Fister Roboto posted:

Then why does the tooltip say "X out of Y widgets didn't get sold today"?

It's effectively the same thing, I was just presenting it in a not "dumping goods in the ocean" fashion. Also, I think it's easier to see goods not sold on a factory level rather than seeing the global oversupply, but you can see that on the trade screen if you prefer.

Fintilgin posted:

Yeah, this is true to an extent, but I do feel like the base game should be balanced around the 'hero' countries to some degree. If they can effectively 'opt out' from ever even looking at entire sub-systems of the game then something is wrong. Especially when the game is about the 19th century and the sub-system is the economy/industry! You shouldn't have to play as a minor country for that.

But...you don't. You're choosing not to look at the economy and then getting annoyed when you nation doesn't crash and burn because of it. No one is forcing you not to manage your economy as those countries, it's entirely your choice. I don't understand why you would choose to leave your economy in the hands of your capitalists and then complain when they do a good job.

Welmu posted:

Old Gods :colbert:


If you make a high speed gif of the effects of swinging your mouse all over the map on the tech view it'll look just as confusing :shrug:

Darkrenown fucked around with this message at 11:27 on May 11, 2013

YF-23
Feb 17, 2011

My god, it's full of cat!


Fintilgin posted:

In V2 to build an Army Man, I need 20 guns, 20 stylish jackets, 20 bottles of wine, and 20 cans of tuna fish. But I don't actually need to know those numbers, or even that I need those things at all, because when I order an Army Man, all the purchases are made for me by my invisible AI helpers, and the actual cost in gold I pay (which is hidden in a tooltip) is a totally unpredictable fluctuating amount based on current market conditions, which I may be able to make very slightly more efficient by using national focuses to make capitalists some tiny percentage more likely to build tuna fish canneries. But I don't really need to worry about efficacy, because the AI has, entirely without my input, made me the most powerful industrial nation on the planet and I've got 31 million gold in the bank, so gently caress efficacy - free cans of tuna for everyone!

You must not have played a game long enough to get to airplanes and tanks then.

"You want tanks? You want airplanes? You are laissez-faire? HAHA gently caress YOU FOOD CANERIES AND CLIPPER SHIPYARDS 4 EVER" -Capitalists in V2

It is seriously impossible to build these things when you unlock them because capitalists won't build the right factories, and you'll be getting half a trickle of the goods needed for a single tank brigade every month until MAYBE your capitalists build the right factory or (more likely) the AI in another country does and you're dependent on them to build your tanks. The AI is also terrible at building good factories, especially when great ones unlock in the late game whose demand skyrockets, like electric gear or cars and radios.

Darkrenown posted:

It's effectively the same thing, I was just presenting it in a not "dumping goods in the ocean" fashion. Also, I think it's easier to see goods not sold on a factory level rather than seeing the global oversupply, but you can see that on the trade screen if you prefer.

Well, the excess goods do disappear, don't they? Like if there's a demand for 4000 telephones and 4500 telephones are produced, the excess telephones don't go anywhere, right?

Also while we're on V2 and talking to devs: a UI improvement you gotta make is making a separate notifier for being able to upgrade a settlement to a protectorate, a protectorate to a colony, and a colony to a state. I'd very much like to horde colonial points by keeping things on the protectorate level but then I can't get a notifier for being able to establish a new protectorate because the one for upgrading an established protectorate to a colony remains active.

Darkrenown
Jul 18, 2012
please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

YF-23 posted:

Well, the excess goods do disappear, don't they? Like if there's a demand for 4000 telephones and 4500 telephones are produced, the excess telephones don't go anywhere, right?

Also while we're on V2 and talking to devs: a UI improvement you gotta make is making a separate notifier for being able to upgrade a settlement to a protectorate, a protectorate to a colony, and a colony to a state. I'd very much like to horde colonial points by keeping things on the protectorate level but then I can't get a notifier for being able to establish a new protectorate because the one for upgrading an established protectorate to a colony remains active.

No, what actually happens is everything is sold at a reduced price, but like I said effectively it's the same thing from an external point of view if everything is sold at half price vs half the stuff is sold at full price and the other half is fired into the sun. It's just the latter sounds siller and is technically inaccurate for anyone who wants to really understand the mechanics.

Honestly, I agree with you on colony alerts, but it's unlikely to be changed. One of the lessons of V2 was that integrating alerts into the topbar looks nice, but it really makes it difficult to add more.

A Buttery Pastry
Sep 4, 2011

Delicious and Informative!
:3:
I failed in my attempt to create pretty borders in Africa, though at least I managed to reduce the number of ugly borders considerably. Anyone succeed in taking all of Africa, and do you have any great advice?



Jesus Christ I hadn't seen the what was going around China, it's like the Chinese just copy-pasted their core territory on top of Manchuria.

Not to be outdone, Central Europe and the Balkans do their best to offend anyone with eyes.



And here we have the final 8 GP's. My prestige was reduced considerably due to a Fascist and then Communist takeover in the last year, but I just couldn't be bothered to fight them. Still #1 in prestige anyway.




YF-23 posted:

Also while we're on V2 and talking to devs: a UI improvement you gotta make is making a separate notifier for being able to upgrade a settlement to a protectorate, a protectorate to a colony, and a colony to a state. I'd very much like to horde colonial points by keeping things on the protectorate level but then I can't get a notifier for being able to establish a new protectorate because the one for upgrading an established protectorate to a colony remains active.
I don't think you would need one for both turning a colony into a state and for establishing a protectorate, since they're both something the player will want to do right away.* Just add a yellow colony icon (or perhaps blue, might be more visible that way.) whenever you can establish a protectorate/create a state, to compliment the current red and green, since that would fit pretty well with the priorities. Losing a colonial race > Being able to free up colonial points > increasing the usefulness of a colony. Should be more easily doable than actually changing the layout of the UI.

*Fake edit: Or maybe not? I always turn colonies into states right away, but maybe I'm missing something?

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
As Austria, how am I supposed to knock Prussia out of GP status? I already took all of German minors into my sphere and hit Prussia with a Cut Down to Size and Humiliate CB, but they still have 118 industry points and 190 prestige so they're still #4 overall. Force them to release more nations to split up the industry score even smaller?

Flappy Bert
Dec 11, 2011

I have seen the light, and it is a string


Declare war and occupy them for a good while. You loose prestige passively if large parts of your nation are occupied, so if you sit on them for long enough they'll drain out of prestige and that should be enough.

Fister Roboto
Feb 21, 2008

Darkrenown posted:

No, what actually happens is everything is sold at a reduced price, but like I said effectively it's the same thing from an external point of view if everything is sold at half price vs half the stuff is sold at full price and the other half is fired into the sun. It's just the latter sounds siller and is technically inaccurate for anyone who wants to really understand the mechanics.

Well then it still causes the same problem where a factory is unprofitable for reasons outside of your control.

Cynic Jester
Apr 11, 2009

Let's put a simile on that face
A dazzling simile
Twinkling like the night sky
Eat them one state at a time. It's not like you have better targets to spend your infamy on.

Darkrenown
Jul 18, 2012
please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

Fister Roboto posted:

Well then it still causes the same problem where a factory is unprofitable for reasons outside of your control.

Sure, that's part of having an economy, I'm not sure what you're getting at though.

Noreaus
May 22, 2008

HEY, WHAT'S HAPPENING? :)
I actually don't buy the "V2 is a black box" problem any more, and I used to be a proponent of it.

The most opaque things in the game are pop assimilation, and pop promotion/demotion. However, this isn't because the information isn't there (expect for in the case of 'No Valid Target', which possibly could be better explained [it means there are no accepted/primary pops for that pop to join in that province]), but because it isn't obvious where it is. Once I found there was actually a page with the percentage chances of a pop promoting or demoting to a particular class, with the various modifiers clearly set out, I started to enjoy the game considerably more. And also once I found that the production screen shows me what goods are used for what, and how much of the world's supply of a good I am making (seeing that I am producing all of the world's tanks stoked my ego a bit, but also explained why nobody was buying my tanks...probably because they hadn't invented tanks yet)

Although, I'd really really like it if we could view MORE stats about individual goods - At the moment you can only see how much of the world's supply you produce, and you can only see that if you are producing any of that item. I really want to be able to see the full stats of every good - Who the top producers are, etc. So that I can aim to sphere them! It surprises me this isn't in the game already, and if it is, I'd love to know about it. It would make me very happy.

Worldwide market forces aren't so much opaque as out of your control by design, as I see it - No other country's economy is working by a different set of rules than you. It's just you have no idea what the market will deign to do next (which is, to be honest, how economy's tend to work). Britain goes into massive debt and stops being able to pay its troops, for example - This means that they stop buying canned food. It just so happens that they are buying most of your canned food. Your factories appear to randomly stop making money - but you know all of these factors exist, because they exist for your country too.

Also, the crisis system has improved the game for me. It means there is a reason to suck up to GPs.

Viral Warfare
Aug 4, 2010

~~a n d I a m c a l m~~

Darkrenown posted:

But...you don't. You're choosing not to look at the economy and then getting annoyed when you nation doesn't crash and burn because of it. No one is forcing you not to manage your economy as those countries, it's entirely your choice. I don't understand why you would choose to leave your economy in the hands of your capitalists and then complain when they do a good job.

Again: why would you want to manage it when the AI does a good enough job? There is no good incentive to manage your economy yourself, quite frankly, because if we actually turned AI control off it's the equivalent of video game busy work - work that you and I both know you don't actually need to do. That isn't a game. In a game all about the economy, just flat out ignoring the economy should not be the default and best option. It shouldn't even be an option to begin with. Why not just say "okay, Victoria 2's economy isn't all that fun to play with" and just resolve to make a simpler and more fun Victoria 3 (or whatever) economy, instead of arguing this weird line of thought that honestly seems alien to me.

Noreaus
May 22, 2008

HEY, WHAT'S HAPPENING? :)
I think the economy is great fun, but yeah if a country is already industrialized I guess you can just leave it running. Choosing to ignore the economy is definitely, definitely not the best option in anything other than the countries that are GPs at the start of the game.

Edit: By which I mean only the industrialized ones. Russia, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire all need careful building in order to survive as industrial powers.

cool new Metroid game
Oct 7, 2009

hail satan

Darkrenown posted:

If you make a high speed gif of the effects of swinging your mouse all over the map on the tech view it'll look just as confusing :shrug:
The regular CK2 tech screen is kinda lovely though, to see what the tech is in my capital province I have to mouse over the home province and then move the map screen around so when I move my mouse back to the tech screen it doesn't show the tech rates for some other province I don't give a poo poo about. At least that old gods tech screen seems to default show your capital province tech, which is pretty drat helpful as that's the province that matters most for tech. Also showing the tech progression rate and what is modifying it is a hell of a lot more clear in that old gods screenie and is a hell of a lot better. Really looking forward to the expansion.

CharlestheHammer
Jun 26, 2011

YOU SAY MY POSTS ARE THE RAVINGS OF THE DUMBEST PERSON ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH BUT YOU YOURSELF ARE READING THEM. CURIOUS!

Cumfart Vortex posted:

Again: why would you want to manage it when the AI does a good enough job? There is no good incentive to manage your economy yourself, quite frankly, because if we actually turned AI control off it's the equivalent of video game busy work - work that you and I both know you don't actually need to do. That isn't a game. In a game all about the economy, just flat out ignoring the economy should not be the default and best option. It shouldn't even be an option to begin with. Why not just say "okay, Victoria 2's economy isn't all that fun to play with" and just resolve to make a simpler and more fun Victoria 3 (or whatever) economy, instead of arguing this weird line of thought that honestly seems alien to me.

That seems to be a problem with you then the game really. If you really want to manage it, manage it. If your complaint is the AI can do a good enough job, then maybe the problem is you don't really want to manage the economy afterall. Especially if you just describe it as busywork.

YF-23
Feb 17, 2011

My god, it's full of cat!


Noreaus posted:

Although, I'd really really like it if we could view MORE stats about individual goods - At the moment you can only see how much of the world's supply you produce, and you can only see that if you are producing any of that item. I really want to be able to see the full stats of every good - Who the top producers are, etc. So that I can aim to sphere them! It surprises me this isn't in the game already, and if it is, I'd love to know about it. It would make me very happy.

You can see the top 5 producers of goods. Go to the trade screen, and hover over the tradegood icons (not the price, the actual icons). The tooltip will display the top 5 producers of each.

Darkrenown
Jul 18, 2012
please give me anything to talk about besides the fact that democrats are allowing millions of americans to be evicted from their homes

Cumfart Vortex posted:

Again: why would you want to manage it when the AI does a good enough job? There is no good incentive to manage your economy yourself, quite frankly, because if we actually turned AI control off it's the equivalent of video game busy work - work that you and I both know you don't actually need to do. That isn't a game. In a game all about the economy, just flat out ignoring the economy should not be the default and best option. It shouldn't even be an option to begin with. Why not just say "okay, Victoria 2's economy isn't all that fun to play with" and just resolve to make a simpler and more fun Victoria 3 (or whatever) economy, instead of arguing this weird line of thought that honestly seems alien to me.

Because you enjoy it? I certainly like managing my economy, and I'm sure plenty of others do. If you don't enjoy it, why is the AI doing a decent job of it when you choose to let it a bad thing? Even if you don't want to fiddle with individual factories, you can still get involved in the economy in a more handsoff manner by encouraging LF parties, encouraging the growth of capitalists, and annexing/Sphereing new people and goods to fuel it
I'm sorry you find the idea of people doing things differently from you alien, but not everyone plays the same way.

Megadyptes posted:

The regular CK2 tech screen is kinda lovely though, to see what the tech is in my capital province I have to mouse over the home province and then move the map screen around so when I move my mouse back to the tech screen it doesn't show the tech rates for some other province I don't give a poo poo about. At least that old gods tech screen seems to default show your capital province tech, which is pretty drat helpful as that's the province that matters most for tech. Also showing the tech progression rate and what is modifying it is a hell of a lot more clear in that old gods screenie and is a hell of a lot better. Really looking forward to the expansion.

Doesn't the normal CK2 tech screen default to your capital too? There might be a toggle between realm average and capital province, but I am fairly sure you don't have to fiddle to see your capital tech.

YF-23
Feb 17, 2011

My god, it's full of cat!


Darkrenown posted:

Doesn't the normal CK2 tech screen default to your capital too? There might be a toggle between realm average and capital province, but I am fairly sure you don't have to fiddle to see your capital tech.

There's an option for realm average and demense average, as I recall, but you need to hover over the capital to see its stats (unless it is displayed in some other way that isn't readily apparent). Of course, the demense average is good enough if you are early game and only have a single county. :v:

Cumfart Vortex posted:

Again: why would you want to manage it when the AI does a good enough job? There is no good incentive to manage your economy yourself, quite frankly, because if we actually turned AI control off it's the equivalent of video game busy work - work that you and I both know you don't actually need to do. That isn't a game. In a game all about the economy, just flat out ignoring the economy should not be the default and best option. It shouldn't even be an option to begin with. Why not just say "okay, Victoria 2's economy isn't all that fun to play with" and just resolve to make a simpler and more fun Victoria 3 (or whatever) economy, instead of arguing this weird line of thought that honestly seems alien to me.

Can't say I've played with planned economy much but state capitalism is definitely ok and even desirable. I mean sure, you can treat the economy as an instrument of the devil that you should never interact with, but if you look into it a fair bit and get a (basic even) understanding of how it works you will find yourself cursing your idiot capitalists if you've got LF or interventionism. Especially, as I said before in the thread, if you get to the mid-late game and want to carpet your country with crazy profitable endgame factories, or if you try building tanks. I'd go as far as to say that having manual control of the economy is a must in that case, the alternative is setting the NF for these factories and pray it actually gets the capitalists to not build a food cannery or a furniture factory.

burnishedfume
Mar 8, 2011

You really are a louse...

Noreaus posted:

I think the economy is great fun, but yeah if a country is already industrialized I guess you can just leave it running. Choosing to ignore the economy is definitely, definitely not the best option in anything other than the countries that are GPs at the start of the game.

Edit: By which I mean only the industrialized ones. Russia, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire all need careful building in order to survive as industrial powers.

Yeah when I play a game as an unciv, the last thing I do to my economy once I civ is ignore it and let it run itself. I also like to take direct control over the economy when I want functionality instead of profit from my factories, like if I want to construct a grand fleet I would want to build boat parts, but if I'm a land power I'd much rather make ammo, guns, and clothes. Even if I'm LF I can still play with tariffs and use NFs to boost craftsmen and clerks in provinces where I have factories I want to succeed like if I notice artillery for whatever reason is valuable in my world.

Different strokes I guess, but even in LF I feel I have as much control over the economy as I need, and if I've had it with my idiot capitalists or if I'm overwhelmed by all my provinces and want less control, I can always promote parties that have economic views that suit that need.

burnishedfume fucked around with this message at 18:21 on May 11, 2013

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Reveilled
Apr 19, 2007

Take up your rifles

Darkrenown posted:

Doesn't the normal CK2 tech screen default to your capital too? There might be a toggle between realm average and capital province, but I am fairly sure you don't have to fiddle to see your capital tech.

Unless you are hovering over a specific province, I believe the screen shows the highest (in blue) and average (in gold) tech levels in your demesne or realm, depending on the toggle. But if, for example, the default view shows that the highest tech level for Legalism in your demesne is level 3, the default view doesn't tell you whether it's your capital or some other province which has that tech level.

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